Mehmet Ağa-Oğlu

Mehmet Ağa-Oğlu (born August 24, 1896 in Yerevan ; † July 4, 1949 ) was a Turkish art historian whose specialty was the history of Islamic art .

Mehmet Ağa-Oğlu was the son of Turkish parents and attended high school in his then Russian hometown of Yerevan. From 1912 he studied Islamic history, philosophy and languages ​​at Moscow University , where he received his doctorate in 1916. During this time his interest in Islamic art arose, which he deepened over the next few years on extensive trips. In 1921 he resumed his studies at Istanbul University , where he met Halil Edhem Eldem , general director of the Istanbul museums. With his advice he decided to study in Europe for the next few years. From 1922 he studied first at the University of Berlin with Ernst Herzfeld and Carl Heinrich Becker , then at the University of Jena , from 1924 at the University of Vienna with Josef Strzygowski and Heinrich Glück . In 1926 he received his doctorate in Vienna. After his return to Istanbul in 1927, he was first curator of Çinili Köşk , then head of the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art . In addition, he taught as a müderris muavini (lecturer) in the subject of Islamic art history at the University of Istanbul.

In 1929 he went to the Detroit Institute of Arts to set up the Department of Middle Eastern Art there, and in 1933 he also became professor of Islamic art history at the University of Michigan , the first ever professor of Islamic art history in the USA. In 1934 he founded the magazine Ars islamica , the first magazine that dealt exclusively with Islamic art. In 1938 he finished his work at the university and at the museum. From 1940 to 1947 he worked on a Corpus of Islamic Metalwork , which, however, remained unfinished and unprinted. In 1946/47 he was a consultant for the Textile Museum in Washington, DC.

Publications (selection)

• The old and new Mohammedje Mosque and its position in the development of Turkish spatial architecture with a critical appendix about the life and works of Sinan . Unprinted dissertation Vienna 1926.
  • From it: Sinan's origins and death . In: Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 29, 1926, pp. 858–865; The figure of the old Mohammedije in Constantinople and its builder . In: Belvedere 46, 1926, pp. 83-94; The Fatih Mosque at Constantinople . In: Art Bulletin 12, 1930, pp. 179-195.
• Ayrıca İslâm Sanat Tarihi . İstanbul 1928.
• Persian bookbindings of the fifteenth century . University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 1935.
• Safavid rugs and textiles. The collection of the shrine of Imâm 'Ali at Najaf . Columbia University Press, New York 1941.

literature

• Adèle Coulin-Weibel: Mehmet Aga Oglu . In: Ars islamica 15–16, 1951, pp. 267–271 ( digitized version , with list of publications).
• Maurice S. Dimand: Mehmet Aga-Oglu . In: College Art Journal 9, 1949/50, pp. 208-209.
• Semavi Eyice : Ağaoğlu, Mehmet . In: İslam ansiklopedisi. Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı Vol. 1, Istanbul 1988, p. 466 ( digitized version ).
• Zeynap Simavi: Mehmet Aga-Oglu and the Formation of the Field of Islamic Art in The United States . In: Journal of Art Historiography 6, 2012 ( digitized ).

Web links

• Estate in the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives